Increasing trade with China has prompted a new initiative by Halyk Bank which will see the Kazakhstan bank issuing China Union Pay (CUP) cards to its customers. This has become possible thanks to OpenWay’s innovative WAY4 software which is used in Halyk Bank’s processing centre.

This is the first time that CUP cards will have been issued outside China since the CUP was founded in 2002 as China’s national payment system. Currently, there are more than 959 million CUP cards in circulation.

Halyk Bank is the largest full-service commercial bank in the Republic of Kazakhstan and has issued more than 2.6 million international payment cards. This project allows residents of Kazakhstan to withdraw cash and pay for purchases with their CUP cards while they are in China – through a huge network of more than 500,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals and 70,000 ATMs. They will also be able to use their cards through Halyk Bank’s network of 2,601 POS terminals, 697 cash withdrawal machines (ATMs) and 547 imprinters across Kazakhstan.

This world-beating initiative has been made possible by OpenWay’s WAY4 software which has enabled full interaction with CUP’s systems. The first stage of the OpenWay/Halyk project was the certification of the CUP acquiring system. Now the project has also achieved certification for CUP issuing.

OpenWay is looking forward to working with Halyk Bank and other WAY4 customers and to expanding CUP issuing and acquiring both in Kazakhstan and other countries in Asia, Europe and Americas that have close trade relationships with the Republic of China.

People's Bank of Kazakhstan (halykbank.kz) is one of Kazakhstan's leading financial groups and retail banks with the largest customer base and distribution network in Kazakhstan. The Bank is developing as a universal financial group, offering a broad range of services (banking, insurance, leasing, brokerage, and asset management) to its retail, small and medium enterprises and corporate customers. People's Bank also operates in Russia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

Union Pay International

UnionPay International (UPI) is a subsidiary focusing on development and support of UnionPay's international business. Its founder is China UnionPay (pinyin: Zhōngguó Yínlián, CUP) – China's payment system. Founded in 2002 by the country's leading banks, its creation was initiated by the State Council and People's Bank of China. Just two years later, the company began working outside China and currently operates in 142 countries.